Immigration Bill Passes Senate; House GOP Says No Way

This afternoon, the much ballyhooed bipartisan immigration reform bill passed the US Senate. And basically what happened is that, in exchange for meager progress for migrant workers and a path to citizenship for "eligible" immigrants, the Democrats agreed to Republicans' proposals to militarize the border and establish biometric tracking at airports.

Ultimately, senators voted on a plan that attempts to fortify the U.S.-Mexico border and other exit points across the country while also providing opportunities for millions of eligible immigrants to apply for permanent status and eventually citizenship.

At a cost of roughly $30 billion, the legislation would double the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border to roughly 40,000 and require the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the southern border. In addition to a "surge" of border agents, the federal government would be required to begin using military-style technology, including radar and unmanned aerial drones to track illegal border crossings.

The Department of Homeland Security also would be required to establish a biometric tracking system at the nation's 30 largest airports and eventually at border crossings and seaports to catch people attempting to leave the country with overstayed visas.

...In an attempt to address the needs of a broad cross-section of the business community that relies on immigrant laborers, the agreement also would increase the number of visas available to high-skilled workers, most of whom work in the fields of science and technology, and lower-skilled people who take jobs in the construction and hospitality industries. Immigrant farm workers would be admitted under a temporary guest worker program.

What a neat deal!

Naturally, it's still not terrible enough for House Republicans to get behind it.

Most House Republicans have dismissed the Senate bill as providing insufficient border security measures and being too generous to the nation's illegal immigrants.

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), a key deputy GOP whip, on Thursday labeled the Senate bill a "pipe dream" that won't come up for a vote in the House.

"The House has no capacity to move that bill in its entirety," Roskam said at a breakfast hosted by the National Review. "It just won't happen."

We need immediate and meaningful immigration reform to provide a path to citizenship and better worker protections for migrant workers of all skill levels. What we don't need is more America 2.0 bullshit and militarized borders in a gross expansion of government spending and federal policing, proposed by the (ha ha) party of small government.